Thursday, April 05, 2007

Hi gang - I am back from Augusta and will post some images later tonight or tomorrow. For right now, we need to talk about The Shield.

Kern has mentioned his passion for the show and I have written some longer pieces about several seasons - last night, I watched the season 6 opener and was again thrilled to be in Vic Mackey's world.

The Shield has always gotten the frantic psychotic realm of LA down - consistently provided stories that shocked and thrilled viewers... but sometimes it's characters bordered on ridiculous (Aceveda - your tyrst with the prostitute was odd).

Last season brought in Mr. Best Actor Forrest Whitaker to up the acting quality (actually raising the bar from Glenn Close!) and the series saw a huge leap in dramatic impact with Lem's conflicted storyline. The Shield reveled in it's character's struggle to maintain good and to hold on to their souls while trying to do good while being bad. Vic's strain to save Lem and keep the Barn from going under is noble... but his actions are anything but.

Walter Goggins stunned me last night - when the crew learns of Kavanaugh's lies about Lem having a second deal (the reason Shane killed him), Vic and Ronnie react with frustration accordingly... but Shane... poor Shane... the guilt... the utter tradgedy that is his life now....

5 comments:

I totally concur with you about the look on Shane's face, and also the moment he took in his truck where he seemed about on the brink of shooting himself until Dani showed up with her new baby. Priceless.

Whittaker continues to knock it out of the park, and I think it's going to be interesting to see the eventual confrontation between him and Mackey.

At this point in the show it's looking more and more like Vic is about to become a man with nothing left to lose, which I think signals the road to a very interesting ending in which the whole of his sociopathic being is going to be be unchained from whatever conscience he has left, free to chew up anything and anyone that stands in the way of him settling his scores before what I surmise will be his tragic downfall.

I wouldn't be surprised if Shane does kill himself either, but I'm imagining that he may not do it as simply as eating his gun. My guess is that he might actually try to do it in such a way that would actually make for some kind of twisted redemption for what he did to Lem. Either that, or Vic will find out and we'll get some really good dramatic perfomances from the both of them when he confronts Shane. This wouldn't be the first time Shane's gotten his nuts in a vice, to be sure.

One thing I have to credit Shawn Ryan and company with is their ability to really get the A-game out of everyone who's ever appeared on the show. Look at Anthony Anderson for example...most of the time he seems like a bit of a bit part buffoon, grinning his way through shite comedies and stereotyped roles in black films. However, his portrayal of Antwon Mitchell was riveting!

Are you kind of curious to see what they finally end up doing with Dutch and Claudette's final arcs as well?

I am so jealous that you were in Augusta (my good friend lives not far from THE golf course). It's my dream to take my pink golf clubs, purple putter, pink and purple golf bag ... you get the idea ... to one of the best places on Earth.

Top Ten Films of 2008

Top Ten Films of 2007

1. No Country for Old Men2. There Will Be Blood3. Once4. Atonement5. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters6. Juno7. Zodiac8. Michael Clayton9. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford10. Superbad